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Most Overrated vacation place you visited.

One of my only complaints about the National Parks is this. Too many assholes that have no respect for the nature or people around them. I wanted to strangle people in the Alpine zone at Rocky Mountain National Patk last year. Signs all over the place to stay on trail due to delicate flora and they are trampling it to get their fat ugly faces in a selfie that no one wants to see.
People are either so selfish or clueless to the fact that their actions impact others. Anyone who has been to a national park knows that traffic can be stopped for animal viewing. It has to be expected to some extent and even planned for for in your day schedule. Delays will happen. But the worst I've ever seen was in Yellowstone.

We stayed in Gardiner outside the North Gate. We left for Salt Lake City on our last day there and cut through the northwest corner of the park and out the West Gate. As we were heading toward the gate, we saw a line of cars stopped in the oncoming lane. There were 2 bison near the road and every car was stopping to take photos. I happened to glance at my odometer at the time. We were moving rapidly toward the gate - as the only car leaving that day - while the length of the stopped line of cars kept growing and growing. It finally ended after 7 miles.

Many people at the end of that line were out of their cars. The reality is that 1/2 of their day in the park was going to be spent in line while people took pictures of an animal they would see dozens of more times that day.
 
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There still is a pizza hut in moon on University Blvd. I know because I had take out yesterday

I think there are many still. There is one in Crafton. We ate there a few years ago because my kids got free pizza with the "Book It" school reading program (anyone remember from the 80s?). They still had the red cups but everything else was not good. And yeah, it seemed like there was only one person working there.
 
Texas is probably 10 years or less away from becoming uninhabitable due to climate. There's still time for the government to give Texas its longstanding wish to secede from the USA. I'm all for it.

Excellent. Chuck would be at or near the top of the short list of sports celebs I’d like to drink a beer with.
1) You would think with Western Pa's rather benign climate, it will start becoming a lower cost destination. IF politicians figure it out.

2) Yeah Chuck was great. Was there with Quinn Buckner and some other dudes, this is when he was still playing for the Suns. They were playing the Spurs, but of course curfews did not apply to Chuck.
 
Yeah..Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Orlando. Those are all good choices. Los Angeles also fits that for me.
All the Atlantic Beach towns are kind of the same. Myrtle, VB, OC. Going to Cape May in 2 weeks for the 1st time. I never go more than 3-4 nights and arrive on Sunday or Monday, weekends are overcrowded. But it's fine for seafood and getting wet in the beach and pool. my preference is Rehoboth, it's nicer smaller place.
 
Houston is a great place if you like to eat. I am lucky, most of my customers are up towards the Woodlands and Conroe. Nicer, newer areas, lots of great restaurants, a little out from the traffic and not far from the Airport.
We had a facility at Conro...stayed at the Woodlands. It is nice there. It was bizarre how they have expressways and parallel to them are roads where the businesses are, so you can do one or the other. Just found it weird. Ate at a nice restaurant on a lake which was cool. Was a great BBQ joint with live music.
 
Would road trips to ND/South Bend for games be legit to enter for this compilation? I’ve been there twice and the place simply didn’t do much for me. I thought the stadium is a dump, and the campus and especially the town was a nothing burger. They certainly have an impressive buzz there on game days, in a cultish sort of way (nothing approaching The Cult though). I respect ND’s power as a football program and not trying to minimize them. But as a destination, it was a disappointment; I’ve simply experienced better, most notably the couple times I was at Virginia Tech for games, which were really great experiences.
Surprised at this. One of the best on-campus Gameday experiences I’ve ever seen. The stadium a dump and the campus a “nothing burger”? Not sure how anyone could see them that way. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any valid publication’s list of most beautiful campuses that doesn’t have ND in its top 10. Did you walk the campus or just the area near the stadium?

There is no “town” to speak of in the near campus vicinity, which is a valid criticism, but i spent 3 days in downtown South Bend for my daughter’s soccer tournament in May and found plenty of good bars and restaurants including a couple of excellent Irish pubs and a couple of very cool new indoor/outdoor restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised.

To each his own I guess.
 
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Surprised at this. One of the best on-campus Gameday experiences I’ve ever seen. The stadium a dump and the campus a “nothing burger”? Not sure how anyone could see them that way. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any valid publication’s list of most beautiful campuses that doesn’t have ND in its top 10. Did you walk the campus or just the area near the stadium?
I walked the campus and was not impressed. I haven't been to a ton of campuses but I consider many I've visited to be more beautiful.
 
Surprised at this. One of the best on-campus Gameday experiences I’ve ever seen. The stadium a dump and the campus a “nothing burger”? Not sure how anyone could see them that way. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any valid publication’s list of most beautiful campuses that doesn’t have ND in its top 10. Did you walk the campus or just the area near the stadium?

There is no “town” to speak of in the near campus vicinity, which is a valid criticism, but i spent 3 days in downtown South Bend for my daughter’s soccer tournament in May and found plenty of good bars and restaurants including a couple of excellent Irish pubs and a couple of very cool new indoor/outdoor restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised.

To each his own I guess.

I spent three years working in South Bend. Downtown is just your typical mid-sized Midwestern city. Because ND is a ways out of town, there is very little impact on non game days. Pretty dead most days outside of lunchtime. It reminded me a little of Erie...decent enough but few people visit the area to go downtown.
 
Surprised at this. One of the best on-campus Gameday experiences I’ve ever seen. The stadium a dump and the campus a “nothing burger”? Not sure how anyone could see them that way. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any valid publication’s list of most beautiful campuses that doesn’t have ND in its top 10. Did you walk the campus or just the area near the stadium?

There is no “town” to speak of in the near campus vicinity, which is a valid criticism, but i spent 3 days in downtown South Bend for my daughter’s soccer tournament in May and found plenty of good bars and restaurants including a couple of excellent Irish pubs and a couple of very cool new indoor/outdoor restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised.

To each his own I guess.
Yes, to each their own
 
We had a facility at Conro...stayed at the Woodlands. It is nice there. It was bizarre how they have expressways and parallel to them are roads where the businesses are, so you can do one or the other. Just found it weird. Ate at a nice restaurant on a lake which was cool. Was a great BBQ joint with live music.
Yeah the "feeder" roads.
 
I spent three years working in South Bend. Downtown is just your typical mid-sized Midwestern city. Because ND is a ways out of town, there is very little impact on non game days. Pretty dead most days outside of lunchtime. It reminded me a little of Erie...decent enough but few people visit the area to go downtown.
That's exactly what I called it. "Erie without a lake". Very similar.
 
I walked the campus and was not impressed. I haven't been to a ton of campuses but I consider many I've visited to be more beautiful.
Just curious-off the top of your head, give me 2 or 3 that you’ve personally visited that you consider to be beautiful and impressive. This is all subjective stuff so there’s no wrong answer, but I’m curious.
 
I spent three years working in South Bend. Downtown is just your typical mid-sized Midwestern city. Because ND is a ways out of town, there is very little impact on non game days. Pretty dead most days outside of lunchtime. It reminded me a little of Erie...decent enough but few people visit the area to go downtown.
I'd say that's pretty accurate, but I'm guessing it's been quite a few years since you worked there. Like nearly every other medium sized U.S. city that still has some younger populations and isn't totally impoverished, there has been a fair bit of gentrification downtown in recent years. Some of those newer restaurants and bars are pulling some ND people in along with the old standbys like Corby's and Fiddler's Hearth. There isn't much in the way of nightlife or good eats near campus, just the old Linebacker Lounge and the new-ish Eddy Street Commons area, which is generic and soulless, so downtown seems to be becoming more of a draw (this from a friend's daughet who just graduated from ND). .

I'm not by any means advocating that SB is some great place to visit or live, but it was a lot better than I remember it from 25 years ago, and it turned out to be a very solid venue for the big youth soccer invitational we were there for.
 
Vegas is awesome but I'm a degenerate gambler. I lived there when I was in the USAF and it was an awesome place to be stationed: people are always in town or willing to visit, good weather, pools, comparatively cheap real estate (back then), really good food.

Still go out with my friends once per year. Can't hang with the youngsters anymore so we moderate the partying. We'll do an event during the day - golf, guns, VR games (one very cool one at MGM), pools, and then we'll go out to a nice dinner and gamble at the Sahara or a similar reasonably priced casino.

Last time we went to Stadium Swim at Circa. For $200 per guy it was basically all you can eat and drink for a daybed to watch football from 11am-9pm. We had a blast.

StadiumSwim_030-wOverlay2.jpeg
It was close to 500 per guy for the first day of March Madness (bachelor party) with a day bed...and I honestly think it was completely worth it.
 
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People are either so selfish or clueless to the fact that their actions impact others. Anyone who has been to a national park knows that traffic can be stopped for animal viewing. It has to be expected to some extent and even planned for for in your day schedule. Delays will happen. But the worst I've ever seen was in Yellowstone.

We stayed in Gardiner outside the North Gate. We left for Salt Lake City on our last day there and cut through the northwest corner of the park and out the West Gate. As we were heading toward the gate, we saw a line of cars stopped in the oncoming lane. There were 2 bison near the road and every car was stopping to take photos. I happened to glance at my odometer at the time. We were moving rapidly toward the gate - as the only car leaving that day - while the length of the stopped line of cars kept growing and growing. It finally ended after 7 miles.

Many people at the end of that line were out of their cars. The reality is that 1/2 of their day in the park was going to be spent in line while people took pictures of an animal they would see dozens of more times that day.
One of the reasons I don't usually want to go near any of the popular parks.
 
Just curious-off the top of your head, give me 2 or 3 that you’ve personally visited that you consider to be beautiful and impressive. This is all subjective stuff so there’s no wrong answer, but I’m curious.
Princeton, UVA, and Richmond are a few that immediately come to mind.
 
Mt. Everest. A real pain in the butt to get to, just to see a big hill.

Seriously, though, Stonehenge and Plymouth Rock.

I did Stonehenge while on a business trip to Wales. Talk about overrated. The odd thing was you could see the stones from the highway...imagine driving down the turnpike near Breezewood and looking off to the right and seeing a bunch of stones in a circular formation. That was Stonehenge. And it was windy as hell...how did they stay up was the true mystery lol.
Stonehenge is overrated but Salisbury was such a wonderful place to visit and justifies the trip out to Stonehenge.
 
You absolutely have to pick the right time of year and the right entry point.
That’s probably a better answer.

Moosehead Lake in Maine is an area they want to turn into a NP. I really hope they don’t. It’s quiet, it’s comfortable, and there just isn’t any pressure on the wildlife. Worth a trip if you want a NP experience without all the crazy during peak season. Can even get lobster up there.
 
I am starting to lean more and more towards National Forests. Still busy, but not as bad. We just spent 10 days in White Mountain National Forest and it was awesome
Hope the weather cooperated. We gave up camping east of the Rockies. Always rains and ruins our trips. I hate mold and mildew.
 
There is still one legit that is less than a mile from my house. I haven't been in there in years and years, but it was the one I went to as a kid. I am tempted to eat there for nostalgia's sake, but my area while being a culinary wasteland for most foods, has some pretty good mom and pop pizza shops.
Don’t forget the Pac-Man video game table at the front. You can sit and have a plate of pizza right on the video game console. And have a few quarters tossed on top for the next few rounds, best babysitter in a restaurant.
 
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Weekdays and early is the key
When we went to Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain NP last summer we kept ourselves on Eastern Time. Basically we were in the parks by 7:00 AM their time and had very few issues doing what we wanted to. RMNP also now uses a timed entry system which cuts down on people a bit throughout the day, though it is still busy at those times
 
That’s probably a better answer.

Moosehead Lake in Maine is an area they want to turn into a NP. I really hope they don’t. It’s quiet, it’s comfortable, and there just isn’t any pressure on the wildlife. Worth a trip if you want a NP experience without all the crazy during peak season. Can even get lobster up there.
MMm........nothing better than freshwater lake lobster.
 
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How do you spend 10 whole days in a National Forest? Were you lost?
LOL, lots of day hikes in the 8-10 mile range, ran a 50k, threw in a college visit in Maine for my younger son, early morning trail runs, day trip to Mt. Washington to drive the Auto Road, one day getting our brakes done and time in the evenings just chillin’ in the condo. We’re pretty happy just being outdoors and hiking. The White Mountains have endless miles of trails.
 
That’s probably a better answer.

Moosehead Lake in Maine is an area they want to turn into a NP. I really hope they don’t. It’s quiet, it’s comfortable, and there just isn’t any pressure on the wildlife. Worth a trip if you want a NP experience without all the crazy during peak season. Can even get lobster up there.
I had/have plans to go there in October on my way home from Acadia. Its looking like I less of a possibility due to family illness. I'll be disappointed but family comes first.
 
I had/have plans to go there in October on my way home from Acadia. Its looking like I less of a possibility due to family illness. I'll be disappointed but family comes first.
That's too bad. It's beautiful. Definitely recommend it when you can. I promised my daughter I would take her back to do more hiking. She wants to summit Katahdin, too, so I'll have to plan for that, somehow. Not exactly an easy day hike.
 
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